Learn Hardcore Portuguese (Portugal): Ela ouve o mesmo podcast todos os dias para treinar o ouvido em inglês. - She listens to the same podcast every day to train her ear in English.

ouvir – to hear / to listen (very general, most common in Portugal)
escutar – to listen (often with a nuance of listening more attentively, but in practice often interchangeable)

In European Portuguese, ouvir is the default verb both for “to hear” and “to listen (to)” in most everyday contexts.

So:

Ela ouve o mesmo podcast… = completely standard, neutral.
Ela escuta o mesmo podcast… = also understandable, but less common in everyday European Portuguese speech; you’ll hear it more in Brazil or in more formal/literary registers.

That’s why ouve is used here.

How is the verb “ouvir” conjugated in the present tense?

Ouvir (to hear / listen) is irregular in the present, especially in the eu form:

eu ouço – I hear / listen
tu ouves – you hear / listen (singular, informal, mainly PT-PT)
ele / ela / você ouve – he / she / you hear / listen
nós ouvimos – we hear / listen
vocês / eles / elas ouvem – you (plural) / they hear / listen

In the sentence:

Ela ouve o mesmo podcast…
→ ela (she) + ouve (3rd person singular).

Why is it “treinar o ouvido” and not “treinar os ouvidos” (plural)?

Literally, o ouvido is “the ear” (singular), and os ouvidos is “the ears” (plural).

However, “treinar o ouvido” is a fixed expression that means “to train your ear” in the sense of improving listening skills, especially for languages or music. It’s understood as “your hearing” or “your listening ability,” not the literal physical ear.

So:

treinar o ouvido em inglês = to train one’s ear in English / to improve one’s English listening skills
Using the singular is idiomatic and completely natural; the plural os ouvidos here would sound strange.

Why is it “treinar o ouvido” and not “treinar o seu ouvido” (your/her ear)?

In Portuguese, with body parts, it’s very common to use the definite article instead of a possessive adjective when it’s clear whose body part we’re talking about.

Ela fecha os olhos. = She closes her eyes.
Ele lavou as mãos. = He washed his hands.

So:

treinar o ouvido = literally “train the ear,” but understood as “train her ear.”

You could say treinar o seu ouvido, but in this context it sounds a bit heavier or unnecessarily explicit. The simple treinar o ouvido is more natural.

What exactly does “para treinar o ouvido” mean grammatically? Why para + infinitive?

Para + infinitive is a very common way to express purpose in Portuguese, similar to English “in order to / to do something”.

Ela ouve o mesmo podcast… para treinar o ouvido.
→ She listens… in order to train her ear.

Structure:

para = for / in order to
treinar = infinitive (“to train”)

So para treinar o ouvido answers the question “Why does she listen to it?” – it shows her goal or purpose.

Why “todos os dias” and not something like “todo dia” or “cada dia”?

In European Portuguese, the most natural way to say “every day” is:

todos os dias = every day / all the days

Nuances:

todos os dias – standard, neutral: every day, regularly
cada dia – “each day”; can sound a bit more formal/emphatic or used in contrasts:
- Cada dia é diferente. = Each day is different.
todo o dia – “all day (long)”, i.e. the entire day, not just once per day:
- Ela estuda todo o dia. = She studies all day (long).

Todo dia is more Brazilian; in Portugal you’ll hear todos os dias or todos os dias far more often.

What does “mesmo” mean in “o mesmo podcast”? Can it mean something else in Portuguese?

Here, mesmo means “same”:

o mesmo podcast = the same podcast

Position: it usually comes before the noun when it means “same”:

a mesma música = the same song
os mesmos livros = the same books

But mesmo has several other meanings depending on context and position:

“even” / “actually”:
- Ela foi mesmo assim. = She went even so / She actually went.
“really / very” (intensifier, more spoken):
- Está mesmo frio. = It’s really cold.

In your sentence, only “same” makes sense.

Can I change the word order and say: “Ela ouve, todos os dias, o mesmo podcast para treinar o ouvido em inglês”?

Yes. Portuguese word order is flexible, especially with time expressions and adverbial phrases. All of these are grammatically correct, with slightly different rhythms or emphasis:

Ela ouve o mesmo podcast todos os dias para treinar o ouvido em inglês.
Ela ouve, todos os dias, o mesmo podcast para treinar o ouvido em inglês.
Todos os dias, ela ouve o mesmo podcast para treinar o ouvido em inglês.

The meaning stays the same: she listens to it every day with the purpose of training her ear in English. The choice is mostly about style and what you want to emphasize.

Why is it “em inglês” and not something like “de inglês”?

For languages, Portuguese normally uses em to mean “in [language]”:

em inglês – in English
em português – in Portuguese
em francês – in French

Examples:

Lemos o texto em inglês. = We read the text in English.
O filme está em português. = The film is in Portuguese.

De inglês would usually mean “of English / about English”, and would appear in other structures, e.g.:

um professor de inglês = an English teacher (teacher of English)
um livro de inglês = an English book / a book for learning English

So here, because we’re talking about the language she’s listening to, em inglês is the correct and natural choice.

Is “podcast” masculine or feminine in Portuguese? Why “o mesmo podcast”?

In European Portuguese, “podcast” is generally treated as masculine:

o podcast – the podcast
um podcast – a podcast

That’s why you say:

o mesmo podcast = the same podcast

There isn’t a grammatical rule forcing “podcast” to be masculine; it’s a loanword, and usage simply settled on the masculine gender (as with many technology/media terms). Using a podcast would sound wrong to most speakers.

Could the pronoun “ela” be left out? For example: “Ouve o mesmo podcast todos os dias…”?

Yes, Portuguese is a pro-drop language: subject pronouns can often be omitted when the verb form makes the subject clear.

So, grammatically:

Ela ouve o mesmo podcast…
Ouve o mesmo podcast…

Both are possible.

However:

At the beginning of a new sentence or paragraph, it’s often more natural to keep the subject pronoun (Ela) to make sure the listener/reader knows who we’re talking about, especially if there might be several possible subjects.
If the context is crystal clear (e.g. you’ve been talking about her for a while), you might drop ela in speech:
- (A Ana é muito dedicada.) Ouve o mesmo podcast todos os dias…

So it’s optional, but including ela is perfectly normal and slightly clearer.

Why use the simple present “ela ouve” instead of something like “ela está a ouvir”?

In European Portuguese:

present simple (ela ouve) is used for:
- habits / routines
- general truths
present continuous (ela está a ouvir) is used for:
- actions happening right now / around now

In your sentence, we’re talking about a habitual action (something she does every day), so the present simple is the natural choice:

Ela ouve o mesmo podcast todos os dias…
= She listens (regularly) every day.

If you said:

Ela está a ouvir o mesmo podcast.
= She is listening to the same podcast (right now / at this moment).

So ouve fits the “every day” idea better than está a ouvir.